India: Adopted TRAI Direction requiring the blocking of non-whitelisted URLs, APKs, and OTT links

On 20 August 2024, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) adopted a direction aimed at curbing the misuse of Uniform Resource Locator (URLs) in messages. The direction applies to access providers and registered senders, who are responsible for transmitting messages containing URLs, Android Package Kits (APKs), or Over The Top (OTT) links. The direction requires access providers to block any non-whitelisted URLs, APKs, or OTT links and highlights that senders who fail to whitelist their links by 1 October 2024 will not be able to transmit any messages containing the links. TRAI highlighted that 3'000 registered senders have already whitelisted more than 70'000 links.